In this episode of AOP Introducing, Helen Mackezie speaks with Oliver Belin, CEO and Founder of Calculum, a U.S.-based fintech platform that leverages AI to help procurement analyze and optimize supplier payment terms. By providing insights into suppliers’ financial performance, ESG scores, or payment terms, Calculum enables procurement and finance teams to negotiate more favorable terms, increase savings, and generate working capital for the business.
Oliver explained what differentiates the company from other solutions in the market. “We built the first database which analyzes over $3 trillion of spend globally for suppliers all over the world,” Oliver said. “And the data is fully anonymized, but it finds based on the correct characteristics of each single supplier, what should be the right terms in comparison to other very similar companies or identical organizations.”
Oliver also shared an example of how Calculum can create value for organizations citing a food and beverage company that used Calculum to analyze 24,000 suppliers. After uploading their supplier lists into the platform, it identified around $175 million euros in cash flow opportunities. Calculum worked with the client to identify opportunities where they could have the biggest impact, and in just two months the company’s procurement team was able to achieve $750,000 in savings, and they’re well on their way to multi-million in savings within a year.
Calculum’s platform is designed to be user-friendly and requires no complex IT integration, which can be good news for procurement teams looking for buy-in across the business. Companies simply need to provide six data points: the buying entity, supplier name, supplier address, purchase volume, currency, and payment terms. Once this data is uploaded, “the platform does all the rest,” says Oliver, identifying opportunities for optimizing payment terms and generating cash flow.
One of the key advantages of Calculum’s platform is that it supports collaboration between procurement and finance teams by providing a centralized platform for things like analyzing payment terms and managing supplier negotiations.
As companies continue to look for new technology solutions that can help them provide a competitive edge and optimize spend, platforms like Calculum leverage the power of AI and data to improve payment terms and provide significant value to the business.
“We’re unique in the market in that Calculum is the first platform, the first database that can analyze spend globally from suppliers all over the world.”
